administrative application not loading

Try running the application from a terminal, for example:

gksudo synaptic

And see what error message is displayed.

Sorry, hit the "Post Comment" button too quickly. If the error is that it can't resolve your hostname, try editing your /etc/hosts file, like this:

sudo gedit /etc/hosts

From a terminal window. Add your hostname to the end of the line starting with 127.0.0.1, for example:

127.0.0.1 localhost <yourhostname>

Save, exit, and try opening an admin application.

> When i try and install updates (or anything that requires the administrative application to start) - the administrative application appears to try and start - I get a message at the bottom of the screen "Starting administrative application" - but nothing happens and 10 seconds later the hourglass goes back to a pointer.
> It is in gnome desktop, version 2.14.3 distributed by ubuntu.

This can happen if for some reason you have configured a root password at
some point rather than use sudo / gksudo.

Have you ever followed a procedure that required you to configure a root
password?

root access is unchanged from installation and the host name was already in the /etc/hosts file (another suggestion).
I have since re-installed UBUNTU from the original CD I created and things are back to normal. One of the programmes I installed post the initial installation (always done via the "add/remove" option), must have caused this.
Thanks for your interest - beginners like me need to know you're out there !